Direct heat-treating apparatus for hot-rolled wire rods



y 1969 KYOlCHlRO MATSUOKA ET AL 3,454,268 DIRECT HEAT-TREATING APPARATUS FOR HOT-ROLLED WIRE RODS Filed Jan. 19,1966 heet of 4 FIG. I

INVENTOR. I K yoichiro Mafsuoka v BY Wafaru Shinada July 8, 1969 3,454,268

DIRECT HEAT-TREATING APPARATUS FOR HOT-ROLLED WIRE RODS Filed Jan. 19, 1966 KYOICHIRO MATSUOKA ET AL Sheet IN VE N TOR.

Kyoichiro Mafsuoka Wafaru Shinada y 8, 1969 KYOICHIRO MATSUOKA ET AL DIRECT HEAT-TREATING APPARATUS FOR HOT-ROLLED WIRE RODS Sheet Filed Jan. I 19, 1966 FIG.3

IN VENTOR.

July 8, 1969 KYQICHIRO MATSUQKA ET AL 3,454,268

DIRECT HEAT-TREATING APPARATUS FOR HOT-ROLLED 'WIRE RODS Filed Jan. 19, 1966 INVEN TOR. K yoichiro Mafsuoka Wa'faru Shinada United States Patent 3,454,268 DIRECT HEAT-TREATING APPARATUS FOR HOT-ROLLED WIRE RODS Kyoichiro Matsuoka and Wataru Shinada, Hikari, Japan, assignors to Yawata Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., Tokyo,

Japan Filed Jan. 19, 1966, Ser. No. 521,618 Claims priority, application Japan, Jan. 23, 1965, 40/ 3,524 Int. Cl. C21d 9/68; F27b 9/28; B211 3/00 U.S. Cl. 266-3 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A direct heat-treating apparatus for rolled wire rods comprising means for winding up finish-rolled wires, coil conveying means for vertically lowering and conveying the wire rod coiled by said winding means While it is kept coiled, air-cooling means for forcibly cooling the wires conveyed by said coil conveying means and coil delivering means for horizontally pushing out and delivering the cooled wires.

This invention relates to heat-treating apparatus for hot-rolled wire rods and more particularly to so-called direct patenting apparatus for carrying out a direct heattreatment by utilizing the temperature immediately after finishing rolled wire rods.

In recent continuous wire rolling mills, it is common that the finishing velocity is 25 m./sec. Corresponding to said finishing velocity, it is also common that the rolling finishing temperature is about 1,000 O, which is comparable to the heating temperature in a patenting treatment at wire manufacturers.

Therefore, various methods of direct patenting treatment of wire rod in which a steel material is heat-treated immediately after it leaves a finishing roll, has been attempted, and recently a method of cooling the wire rod by leading it into cooling water fed into a guide pipe has been provided. Particularly, various studies have been made on the design of the guide pipe for cooling.

However, such a method is accompanied by the following disadvantages that the influences of the temperature and pressure of the cooling water and of the shape of the guide pipe on the material qualities of the wire rod are so large, especially the fluctuation of the material qualities due to the fluctuation of the water pressure is so large, the controls of the temperature and pressure are, however, so diflicult and further the structure of the cross-section of the wire rod is so non-uniform that the produced wire rod is not so satisfactory as a patented wire rod prepared by a wire manufacturer, which has necessarily led to an attempt of adopting an air-cooling method without depending on such water-cooling method.

In view of the fact that the transformation of steel in the patenting treatment can be explained by a continuous cooling transformation curve, an idea occurred to the inventors that if a wire rod at about 1,000" C. just out of a roll will be cooled at a properly controlled cooling velocity even in air-cooling, a wire rod having a metal structure or a mechanical property (wire-drawability) similar to that by the patenting treatment usually carried out by wire manufacturers should be able to be obtained.

However, in an ordinary wire rolling mill, as the time required for a wire rod to run between the final finishing roll and the winder is less than 2 seconds, the transformation beginning line in the continuous cooling transformation curve is not reached with this time. Thus, the transformation must inevitably begin and end in the state wound in the form of a coil. Consequently, in the case 3,454,268 Patented July 8, 1969 ICC of the coil weight (the weight per billet) being particularly large, a difference is produced between the cooling velocity in the part of the coil in contact with the outside air and that in the part not in contact with the outside air, whereby a difference is produced in the behaviors in the continuous cooling transformation curve in each part. Consequently, a metal structural difference is produced, resulting in lacking a uniformity in the material qualities over the entire length of the coil, depreciating the commercial value of the product. In order to overcome such cooling unevenness inside and outside the coil due to the mass effect of the coil, it will be necessary to adopt either of a method of cooling the wire not as a coil, but as a line or a method of cooling the wire in the form of a coil as small as possible. The former method is based on the idea that the distance from the finishing roll to the winder is made so long that the transformation may terminate while the wire rod running, however, in this method disadvantages are inevitable in respect of the space, construction cost and wire rod leading technique. Therefore, the latter method of cooling the wire rod over the entire length after or While the wire rod becomes a coil as small as possible is considered to be preferable. However, in this method it is a problem, how the wire should be cooled uniformly over the entire length of the coil.

The present invention is to provide an apparatus for uniformly heat-treating coils over the entire length in such air-cooling method as above mentioned.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus wherein the time from the finish-rolling to the end of the winding can be taken to be sufficient.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which is cheap to construct and can be fitted to any existing winding apparatus.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a direct heat-treating apparatus which can be easily fitted to and removed from any existing Winding apparatus.

The present invention shall be explained in detail in the following with reference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic elevation of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sketch on line 2-2 in FIG. 1 as seen in the direction indicated by the arrow;

FIG. 3 is a detailed view of a vertical conveyer driving mechanism as taken on line 33 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a magnified view of a guide and a vertical conveyer;

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of the guide;

FIGS. 6 and 7 are views of guide covers as closed and opened, respectively.

First of all, a coil conveying apparatus 1 of the present invention shall be explained. The coil conveying apparatus 1 comprises carriages 5 and 6, pillars 2 vertically erected on said carriages, sprockets 15 and 15' provided in the upper and lower parts of said pillars, conveyer belts 3 (or vertical conveyer belts in this embodiment) tensioned by said sprockets and moved in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 4 by the driving sprockets 15, pawls 4 fitted at proper space intervals over the entire length of said conveyer belt, conveyer correcting carriages 50 each provided on the side for mounting a wire rod A inside each conveyer belt 3 and a driving device for driving said driving sprockets 15. Said conveying apparatus 1 is arranged vertically below a winding device 30 for the wire rod A. That is to say, in order that the 'wire rod A coiled by the winding device may be continuously moved in the form of one spire of the coil or several spires of the coil arranged concentrically at one time, a plurality of said conveyer belts 3 (eight belts in the illustrated embodiment) are arranged in positions equally dividing the outer periphery of the winding device 30 so that the spires of the coiled wire rod A may be mounted substantially on the middle points of the pawls 4 fitted vertically or as directed rather upwardly over the entire length of the conveyer belts. (See FIG. 3.) The carriages for mounting said vertical conveyer belts 3 and driving device consist of the fixed carriage 5 and the opening and closing carriage 6 to be opened by a clamp 21 around a stand 8 for mounting a vertical conveyer belt driving motor 9 as a center. (See the chain lines in FIGS. 2 and 3.) A hole 7 for passing the wire rod A is made in the central part of each of said carriages.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, four vertical conveyer belts 3 are mounted along the hole 7 of each of the fixed carriage 5 and opening and closing carriage 6, respectively, so as to be separately driven each by a set of Bayers speed change gears through the driving motor 9. That is to say, bevel gears 11 and 11' are rotated through a bevel gear rotated by said motor 9, the rotation is transmitted to respective speed change gears 12, 13, 14, 12, 13', 13" and 14 and the sprockets 15 and 15' are rotated at the same speed through shafts 16 and 16 and universal joints 17 and 17', respectively.

The coil conveying apparatus 1 is of the above mentioned construction. Said apparatus 1 is mounted on a supporting frame 22 which comprises supporting pillars 2'5 and machine frames 23 and 24 supported by said pillars.

Further, in the present invention, the coil conveying apparatus 1 may be formed so as to be movable from just below the winding device 30. In the present embodiment, such case is illustrated. In such case, said carriage 5 is provided with Wheels 18 mounted on rails 23 laid on said machine frame 23 so as to be laterally movable. For this purpose, an arm is secured to the fixed carriage 5 and a supporting plate 20 is hung on said arm so that said supporting plate 20 may also move together with the carriage.

Rollers 19 provided on the opening and closing carriage 6 are mounted to roll on said supporting plate 20 so as to support said carriage 6 and to make it possible to open and close the carriage '6. (See FIGS. 1 and 2.)

Now, the air-cooling device shall be explained. A wind box 42 is to feed Wind to cool the Wire rod A conveyed as coiled by the vertical conveyer belts 3 and comprises a wind inlet 43 for wind from a blower (not illustrated), an upper part cooling box 44 for cooling the upper part of the coil conveying apparatus 1, a middle part cooling box 45 for cooling the middle part of the coil conveying apparatus and a lower part cooling box 46 for cooling the lower part of the coil conveying apparatus. Said cooling boxes are provided with respective blowing openings 44, 45 and 46' facing the conveying apparatus. Said Wind box 42 is fixed on a carriage 47 so as to be movable laterally along the rails 23 in case the opening and closing carriage 6 is opened or in case the coil conveying apparatus 1 is moved.

Next, devices for bringing the wire rod A to the coil conveying apparatus 1 shall now be explained. First of all, auxiliary pinch rolls 27 are provided between finishing rolls (not illustrated) and main pinch rolls 28 and further a water-cooling guide pipe 29 is provided between said rolls 27 and 28. For the winder 30 may be used such known one as an Edemborn winder. In the drawings are illustrated a rotary pipe 31 for coiling the wire rod A so as to be in the form of a coil and a cone 40.

In the present embodiment, the Winder 30 is so made as to be vertically movable along a fitting pillar 32. Just below the cone is provided a coil guiding device 33 comprising an inner ring 38 having an outside diameter substantially the same as of the outer periphery of the cylindrical part of the cone '40 and a tapered outer ring 37. Said outer ring 37 is held on the pillars 32 and 32 by arms 34 and 35. Said inner ring 38 is held on the cone 40 by fixing plates 39. In the present invention, said coil guiding device 33 is so made as to be displaced from just below the cone. Therefore, the arm 34 is secured at one end to the outer ring 37 and is rotatably fitted at the other end to the pillar 32. The arm 35 is removably fitted at one end to the outer ring 37 through a pin 36 and is rotatably fitted at the other end to the pillar 32'. (See FIGS. 4 and 5.) Further, the inner ring 38 is rotatably provided with a proper number of fitting plates 39 so that, at the time of the Operation, as :in FIG. 7, said plate 39 may be fitted and held in a holding part 41 provided on the cone 40 and that, when the inner ring 38 is to be removed from the cone 40 without using the above mentioned guide 33, as in FIG. 6, said plate 39 may be hung and held on the outer ring 37.

As shown in FIG. 4, said guiding device 33 is provided so as to be close to the cone 40 in the upper part and to the vertical conveyer belts 3 in the lower part and is to guide the wire rod A coiled in the cone 40 so that it may be mounted on the middle parts of the pawls 4 of the above mentioned conveyor belts 3.

A delivering device for the cooled coils shall now be described. Below the coil conveying apparatus 1, that is, below the machine frame 23, is provided a drum 41 for receiving cooled coils so as to be vertically movable. A coil pusher 48 to push out mounted coils is arranged beside said drum 41. A chain conveyor 49 for conveying coils is provided adjacently to said coil pusher 48.

The operation of said apparatus shall now be explained in the following.

The wire rod A finish-rolling at about 1,000 C. is directly conveyed into the Water-cooling guide pipe 29 through the auxiliary pinch rolls 27 to cool down to a temperature of 800 to 850 C. and is then conveyed to the winder 30 through the main pinch rolls 28. Said wire rod A is coiled by being spread on the winding cone 40 by the rotating pipe 31, is guided between the inner and outer rings of the guide 33, is mounted or Wound as coiled and individual spires or a group of several spires are held on the pawls 4 of the vertical conveyer belts 3 arranged in the outer ring part of said guide. As said conveyer belts 3 are being moved in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 4 at the same velocity for each conveyer belt by the driving device rotated by the motor 9, one roll or several spires of coil as partitioned as one lot fall down concentrically, while being kept in a coiled form, leave said conveyer belts 3- and are placed in the drum 41.

While falling as mounted or wound on a plurality of pawls 4, the wire rod A is forcibly air-cooled by the wind box 43, whereby it is subjected to the Ar transformation sufficiently to be of a very fine grain structure of sorbite. As the vertical conveyer belts 3 are surrounded by the upper part cooling box 44, middle part cooling box 45 and lower part cooling box 46, while the coil A is moved by said conveyer belts, it is sufiiciently cooled on the entire periphery. The cooling temperature for the coils is about 600 C. The coil holding time by said conveyer belts is 10 to 20 seconds. Further, if the coil holding time and the amount of the cooling wind are properly adjusted, the finish-rolled coils may also be discharged as cooled down to about 600 C. on the vertical conveyer belts without being passed through the water-cooling device. When the wire rod A of one billet has been thus cooled and has been placed in the drum 41, said drum 41 falls down, only the coils remain on the stand, the coils are then pushed out onto the chain conveyer 49 by the coil pusher 48 and will be mounted on said conveyer 49. Thus the Wire rod A is conveyed by said conveyer 49 and is conveyed to a product storage through a hook conveyer (not illustrated).

In case the coil A has not been well wound and has been miscoiled while being lowered by the vertical conveyer belts 3, the motor 9 for driving the vertical conveyer belts is stopped, the wind box 42 is moved and is separated from the coil conveying apparatus 1, the opening and closing carriage 6 is then opened as shown by the chain lines in FIGS. 2 and 3 by operating the pusher 21 with an oil pressure. Thus the miscoiling is removed.

The present apparatus can be thus used not only exclusively to directly heat-treat wires but also to directly recover into the drum the coils wound with the winder without being subjected to such heat-treatment depending on the size and material of the wire rod and to convey them to a storage. In such case, the coil conveying apparatus 1 and wind box 42 are moved leftward as shown by the chain lines in FIG. 1, the fitting plate 39 of the guide 33 is removed from the cone 40 and is held by the outer ring 37, the pin 36 is then removed, the outer ring 37, inner ring 38 and arm 35 are opened and the winder 30 is lowered along the fitting pillar 32 and is positioned just above the drum 41.

As detailed in the above, according to the present invention, as sufficient time can be taken from the finishrolling to the end of the winding, the coiled wire can be uniformly subjected to the Ar transformation over the entire length at a proper cooling velocity and wires having the same mechanical properties and fluctuation as of any conventional air-patented wires can be prepared without any patenting treatment by wire manufactures.

Further, according to the present invention, as the wires are wound as coiled and the coils are vertically conveyed as concentrically arranged to the end of the cooling, the present apparatus can be made very compactly, the equipment cost may be low and it can be easily fitted to any existing winding apparatus with a simple modification.

Further, according to the present invention, because one roll or several rolls of wire rod can be conveyed in a group as one lot, even where the roll weight is large, the wire can be perfectly uniformly cooled.

The present invention has been explained in the above with reference to an embodiment. Any modification and alteration can be made on this embodiment without deviating from the scope of the spirit of the invention.

What we claim is:

1. A direct heat-treating apparatus for rolled wire rods comprising means for winding up finish-rolled wires, coil conveying means for vertically lowering and conveying the wire rod coiled by said winding means while it is kept coiled, said coil conveying means comprising a plurality of conveyer belts vertically erect in positions equally dividing the outer periphery of the winder, pawls fitted at fixed intervals over the entire length of each of said conveyer belts, supporting means for tensioning and holding said conveyer belts and driving means for driving said conveyer belts at a fixed velocity in a fixed direction, and a fixed carriage and an opening and closing carriage, some of said conveyer belts being on the fixed carriage and the remainder being on the movable carriage, air-cooling means for forcibly cooling the wires conveyed by said coil conveying means and coil delivering means for horizontally pushing out and delivering the cooled wires.

2. A direct heat-treating apparatus for rolled wire rods comprising means for winding up finish-rolled wires, coil conveying means for vertically lowering and conveying the wire rod coiled by said winding means while it is kept coiled, air-cooling means for forcibly cooling the wires conveyed by said coil conveying means, said air-cooling means comprising an upper part cooling box opening into the upper part of said coil conveying means, a middle part cooling box opening into the middle part of said coil conveying means and a lower part cooling box opening into the lower part of said coil conveying means, all of said cooling boxes being connected with a blower, said apparatus having a frame with rails thereon and a carriage movable along the rails and on which said cooling boxes are mounted, and coil delivering means for horizontally pushing out and delivering the cooled wires.

3. A direct patenting apparatus for rolled wire rods comprising means for winding up finish-rolled wires in a continuous coil with spaced spires or spaced group of spires, coil conveying means for conveying the wire rod coiled by said winding means in a fixed direction, while it is kept coiled, said conveying means being composed of a plurality of conveyer belts having the runs parallel to each other and the belts being spaced arourrdthe periphery of a coil conveying space, said belts having pawls thereon for supporting the; spires fitted at fixed intervals equal to the spacing between spires or groups of spires over the entire length of each of said conveyer belts, aircooling means for forcibly cooling the wires conveyed by said coil conveying means vand coil delivering means for horizontally pushing out and delivering the cooled wires.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said apparatus has a frame with rails thereon and said carriage is movable along said rails.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein coil guiding means for mounting the wire coiled by the winder substantially on the middle part of each pawl on the coil conveyer belt is provided between said wire winder and said coil conveying means.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said winder comprises a fixed cone and an inner ring having substantially the same outside diameter as of the outer periphery of the fixed cone of said winder and mounted on the large end of the fixed cone, a tapered outer ring around the outer periphery of said inner ring, pillars adjacent said winder, and supporters carrying said outer ring and freely movable up and down the pillars, whereby the position of the outer ring can be changed.

7. A direct heat-treating apparatus for rolled materials comprising means for winding up finish-rolled wires a pillar on which said winding means is mounted so as to be vertically movable, a Winder having a fixed core, coil guiding means comprising an inner ring having substantially the same outside diameter as the outer periphery of the fixed cone and a tapered outer ring, said rings being positioned just below said Winding means, a plurality of conveyer belts having pawls thereon at fixed intervals over the entire length and vertically erected in positions equally spaced around the outer periphery of the fixed cone of said winder, driving means for said conveyer belts, a supporting frame, a fixed carriage fixed on said frame and an opening and closing carriage movable on said frame toward and away from said fixed carriage, some of said conveyor belts and the driving means therefor being mounted on said fixed carriage and the remainder and the driving means therefor being mounted on said opening and closing carriage, air cooling means consisting of an upper part cooling box, middle part cooling box and lower part cooling box, a blower connected to said cooling boxes, said cooling boxes being mounted on said opening and closing carriage so as to be adjacent to said coil conveying means and movable on said machine frame, and means for mounting and delivering coils just below said coil conveying means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 737,361 8/1903 Daniels 266-6 1,302,843 5/ 1919 Peirce 266-3 2,587,742 3/ 1952 Lorig 266-3 2,743,066 4/ 1956 Crum 24282 3,154,443 10/1964 Nye et al 266-3 X 3,171,876 3/1965 Nye et a1 266-3 J. SPENCER OVERHOLSER, Primary Examiner.

R. SPENCER ANNEAR, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. -2; 263-3 

